Non-detection of Helium in the Hot Jupiter WASP-48b

Abstract

Hot Jupiters orbiting extremely close to their host star may experience atmospheric escape due to the large amounts of high-energy radiation they receive. Understanding the conditions under which this occurs is critical, as atmospheric escape is believed to be a driving factor in sculpting planetary populations. In recent years, the near-infrared 10833 Å helium feature has been found to be a promising spectral signature of atmospheric escape. We use transmission spectroscopy to search for excess helium absorption in the extended atmosphere of WASP-48b, a hot Jupiter orbiting a slightly evolved, rapidly-rotating F star. The data were collected using the Habitable Zone Planet Finder spectrograph on the Hobby-Eberly Telescope. Observations were taken over the course of seven nights, from which we obtain three transits. No detectable helium absorption is seen, as absorption depth is measured to $-0.0025\pm 0.0021$, or $1.2\sigma$ from a null detection. This non-detection follows our current understanding of decreasing stellar activity (and thus high-energy radiation) with age. We use a 1D isothermal Parker wind model to compare with our observations and find our non-detection can best be explained with a low planetary mass-loss rate and high thermosphere temperature. We explore our results within the context of the full sample of helium detections and non-detections to date. Surprisingly, comparing helium absorption with the stellar activity index $\log {\mathrm{R}}_{\mathrm{HK}}^{\prime }$ reveals a large spread in the correlation between these two factors, suggesting that there are additional parameters influencing the helium absorption strength.

arXiv comment19 pages, 8 figures, 5 tables. Accepted for publication in AJ

References in corpus (121)

• SciPy 1.0--Fundamental Algorithms for Scientific Computing in Python
• Array Programming with NumPy
• Astropy: A Community Python Package for Astronomy
• The Astropy Project: Building an inclusive, open-science project and status of the v2.0 core package
• The Astropy Project: Sustaining and Growing a Community-oriented Open-source Project and the Latest Major Release (v5.0) of the Core Package
• Seven temperate terrestrial planets around the nearby ultracool dwarf star TRAPPIST-1
• The California-Kepler Survey. III. A Gap in the Radius Distribution of Small Planets
• Spectroscopic [Fe/H] for 98 extra-solar planet-host stars: Exploring the probability of planet formation
• The stellar activity-rotation relationship and the evolution of stellar dynamos
• Evolution of the Solar Activity over Time and Effects on Planetary Atmospheres: I. High-energy Irradiances (1-1700 A)
• A super-Earth transiting a nearby low-mass star
• Kepler planets: a tale of evaporation
• Theoretical Transmission Spectra During Extrasolar Giant Planet Transits
• Atmospheric Escape from Hot Jupiters
• Temperate Earth-sized planets transiting a nearby ultracool dwarf star
• Detection of oxygen and carbon in the hydrodynamically escaping atmosphere of the extrasolar planet HD209458b
• Improved parameters for extrasolar transiting planets
• RadVel: The Radial Velocity Modeling Toolkit
• ELODIE metallicity-biased search for transiting Hot Jupiters II. A very hot Jupiter transiting the bright K star HD189733
• Sodium Absorption From the Exoplanetary Atmosphere of HD189733b Detected in the Optical Transmission Spectrum
• HAT-P-11b: A Super-Neptune Planet Transiting a Bright K Star in the Kepler Field
• Estimation of the XUV radiation onto close planets and their evaporation
• WASP-12b: The hottest transiting planet yet discovered
• Helium in the eroding atmosphere of an exoplanet
• The GAPS Programme with HARPS-N@TNG XIV. Investigating giant planet migration history via improved eccentricity and mass determination for 231 transiting planets
• Observations of Mass Loss from the Transiting Exoplanet HD 209458b
• Precision Stellar Characterization of FGKM Stars using an Empirical Spectral Library
• Homogeneous studies of transiting extrasolar planets. III. Additional planets and stellar models
• Atmospheric Escape and the Evolution of Close-in Exoplanets
• Stellar Lyman-alpha Emission Lines in the Hubble Space Telescope Archive: Intrinsic Line Fluxes and Absorption from the Heliosphere and Astrospheres
• A giant planet undergoing extreme ultraviolet irradiation by its hot massive-star host
• Chromospheric activity catalogue of 4454 cool stars. Questioning the active branch of stellar activity cycles
• Lyman-$\alpha$ Transit Spectroscopy and the Neutral Hydrogen Tail of the Hot Neptune GJ436b
• Temporal variations in the evaporating atmosphere of the exoplanet HD 189733b
• Spectrally resolved helium absorption from the extended atmosphere of a warm Neptune-mass exoplanet
• A New Window into Escaping Exoplanet Atmospheres: 10830 Å Line of Helium
• An extended hydrogen envelope of the extremely hot giant exoplanet KELT-9b
• The Intrinsic Extreme Ultraviolet Fluxes of F5 V to M5 V Stars
• A consistent retrieval analysis of 10 Hot Jupiters observed in transmission
• Barycentric Corrections at 1 cm/s for precise Doppler velocities
• The Habitable-Zone Planet Finder: A Stabilized Fiber-Fed NIR Spectrograph for the Hobby-Eberly Telescope
• The HST PanCET Program: Exospheric Mg II and Fe II in the Near-UV transmission spectrum of WASP-121b using Jitter Decorrelation
• HAT-P-32b and HAT-P-33b: Two Highly Inflated Hot Jupiters Transiting High-Jitter Stars
• Hint of a transiting extended atmosphere on 55 Cancri b
• Detection of He I $\lambda 10830$ Å absorption on HD 189733 b with CARMENES high-resolution transmission spectroscopy
• Origin and Loss of nebula-captured hydrogen envelopes from "sub"- to "super-Earths" in the habitable zone of Sun-like stars
• Orbital misalignment of the Neptune-mass exoplanet GJ 436b with the spin of its cool star
• Four newborn planets transiting the young solar analog V1298 Tau
• Three sub-Jupiter-mass planets: WASP-69b & WASP-84b transit active K dwarfs and WASP-70Ab transits the evolved primary of a G4+K3 binary
• A hot Uranus transiting the nearby M dwarf GJ3470. Detected with HARPS velocimetry. Captured in transit with TRAPPIST photometry
• A global analysis of Spitzer and new HARPS data confirms the loneliness and metal-richness of GJ 436 b
• Three irradiated and bloated hot Jupiters: WASP-76b, WASP-82b & WASP-90b
• WASP-52b, WASP-58b, WASP-59b, and WASP-60b: four new transiting close-in giant planets
• Magnesium in the atmosphere of the planet HD209458b: Observations of the thermosphere-exosphere transition region
• The 55 Cnc system reassessed
• 55 Cancri: Stellar Astrophysical Parameters, a Planet in the Habitable Zone, and Implications for the Radius of a Transiting Super-Earth
• Python Leap Second Management and Implementation of Precise Barycentric Correction (barycorrpy)
• A Detection Of H-alpha In An Exoplanetary Exosphere
• Transit observations of the Hot Jupiter HD 189733b at X-ray wavelengths
• On the Age of the TRAPPIST-1 System
• Hubble Space Telescope detection of oxygen in the atmosphere of exoplanet HD189733b
• Stellar Diameters and Temperatures VI. High angular resolution measurements of the transiting exoplanet host stars HD 189733 and HD 209458 and implications for models of cool dwarfs
• Ground-based near-UV observations of 15 transiting exoplanets: Constraints on their atmospheres and no evidence for asymmetrical transits
• The discoveries of WASP-91b, WASP-105b and WASP-107b: two warm Jupiters and a planet in the transition region between ice giants and gas giants
• WASP-80b has a dayside within the T-dwarf range
• WASP-80b: a gas giant transiting a cool dwarf
• Helium Absorption at 1083 nm from Extended Exoplanet Atmospheres: Dependence on Stellar Radiation
• He I $\lambda$ 10830 Å in the transmission spectrum of HD 209458 b
• The NASA-UC Eta-Earth Program: III. A Super-Earth orbiting HD 97658 and a Neptune-mass planet orbiting Gl 785
• HAT-P-18b and HAT-P-19b: Two Low-Density Saturn-Mass Planets Transiting Metal-Rich K Stars
• TESS Hunt for Young and Maturing Exoplanets (THYME) III: a two-planet system in the 400 Myr Ursa Major Group
• WASP-107b's density is even lower: a case study for the physics of planetary gas envelope accretion and orbital migration
• Confirmation of WASP-107b's extended Helium atmosphere with Keck II/NIRSPEC
• Modelling the He I triplet absorption at 10830 Angstroms in the atmosphere of HD 209458 b
• WASP-35b, WASP-48b and WASP-51b: Two new planets and an independent discovery of HAT-P-30b
• A He I upper atmosphere around the warm Neptune GJ 3470b
• Evidence for He I 10830 Å~ absorption during the transit of a warm Neptune around the M-dwarf GJ 3470 with the Habitable-zone Planet Finder
• The Upper Edge of the Neptune Desert Is Stable Against Photoevaporation
• From dense hot Jupiter to low-density Neptune: The discovery of WASP-127b, WASP-136b and WASP-138b
• The Transiting System GJ1214: High-Precision Defocused Transit Observations and a Search for Evidence of Transit Timing Variation
• Detection of Atmospheric Escape from Four Young Mini Neptunes
• Updated Parameters and a New Transmission Spectrum of HD 97658b
• Detection of Ongoing Mass Loss from HD 63433c, a Young Mini Neptune
• A decade of H$\alpha$ transits for HD 189733 b: stellar activity versus absorption in the extended atmosphere
• Bright Opportunities for Atmospheric Characterization of Small Planets: Masses and Radii of K2-3 b, c, d and GJ3470 b from Radial Velocity Measurements and Spitzer Transits
• The origin of the excess transit absorption in the HD 189733 system: planet or star?
• Non-detection of Helium in the Upper Atmospheres of Three Sub-Neptune Exoplanets
• Constraints on Metastable Helium in the Atmospheres of WASP-69b and WASP-52b with Ultra-Narrowband Photometry
• Search for a habitable terrestrial planet transiting the nearby red dwarf GJ 1214
• H$\alpha$ and He I absorption in HAT-P-32 b observed with CARMENES -- Detection of Roche lobe overflow and mass loss
• Three Small Super-Earths Transiting the nearby star GJ 9827
• High-energy irradiation and mass loss rates of hot Jupiters in the solar neighborhood
• No escaping helium from 55 Cnc e
• On the Age of Stars Harboring Transiting Planets
• A tentative detection of He I in the atmosphere of GJ 1214b
• Masses and radii for the three super-Earths orbiting GJ 9827, and implications for the composition of small exoplanets
• The young HD 73583 (TOI-560) planetary system: Two 10-M${}_{\oplus }$ mini-Neptunes transiting a 500-Myr-old, bright, and active K dwarf
• Keck/NIRSPEC studies of He I in the atmospheres of two inflated hot gas giants orbiting K dwarfs: WASP-52b and WASP-177b
• Metastable Helium Reveals an Extended Atmosphere for the Gas Giant HAT-P-18b
• Ca II H&K stellar activity parameter: a proxy for stellar Extreme Ultraviolet Fluxes
• TOI-2076 and TOI-1807: Two young, comoving planetary systems within 50 pc identified by TESS that are ideal candidates for further follow-up
• The GAPS Programme with HARPS-N at TNG. XXXVII. A precise density measurement of the young ultra-short period planet TOI-1807 b
• Warm Spitzer and Palomar Near-IR Secondary Eclipse Photometry of Two Hot Jupiters: WASP-48b and HAT-P-23b
• The GAPS Programme at TNG. XXXII. The revealing non-detection of metastable HeI in the atmosphere of the hot Jupiter WASP-80b
• Accurate parameters for HD 209458 and its planet from HST spectrophotometry
• A System of Three Super Earths Transiting the Late K-Dwarf GJ 9827 at Thirty Parsecs
• Search for helium in the upper atmosphere of the hot Jupiter WASP-127 b using Gemini/Phoenix
• Helium absorption in exoplanet atmospheres is connected to stellar coronal abundances
• A multi-wavelength look at the GJ 9827 system -- No evidence of extended atmospheres in GJ 9827 b and d from HST and CARMENES data
• Mass determination of the 1:3:5 near-resonant planets transiting GJ 9827 (K2-135)
• More Evidence for Variable Helium Absorption from HD 189733b
• Directly Determined Properties of HD 97658 from Interferometric Observations
• Three Hot-Jupiters on the upper edge of the mass-radius distribution: WASP-177, WASP-181 and WASP-183
• Planet(esimal)s Around Stars with TESS (PAST) III: A Search for Triplet He I in the Atmospheres of Two 200 Myr-old Planets
• TESS discovery of a sub-Neptune orbiting a mid-M dwarf TOI-2136
• X-ray emission from the super-Earth host GJ 1214
• NGTS-5b: a highly inflated planet offering insights into the sub-Jovian desert
• X-ray variability of HD 189733 across eight years of XMM-Newton observations
• Properties of the Interstellar Medium along Sight Lines to Nearby Planet Hosting Stars
• Validation and atmospheric exploration of the sub-Neptune TOI-2136b around a nearby M3 dwarf
• TATOO: a tidal-chronology standalone tool to estimate the age of massive close-in planetary systems

Cited by in corpus (7)

• Connection between planetary He I $\lambda$10830 Å absorption and extreme-ultraviolet emission of planet-host stars
• DREAM: III.A helium survey in exoplanets on the edge of the hot Neptune desert with GIANO-B@TNG
• The open-source sunbather code: modeling escaping planetary atmospheres and their transit spectra
• Stellar obliquities of eight close-in gas giant exoplanets
• sunset: A database of synthetic atmospheric-escape transmission spectra for nearly every transiting planet
• Confronting compositional confusion through the characterisation of the sub-Neptune orbiting HD 77946
• Analytical modeling of helium absorption signals of isothermal atmospheric escape